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Monday, July 6, 2015

Vatican City, 4 July 2015 (VIS) –
Pope emeritus Benedict XVI today received a Doctorate honoris causa
from the Pontifical University of John Paul II and the Musical
Academy of Krakow, Poland, granted by the rectors of both
institutions and conferred this morning at Castel Gandolfo by
Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, archbishop of Krakow and grand chancellor
of the university dedicated to St. John Paul II.

Benedict XVI received the nomination
with a discourse in which he recalled how St. John Paul II
demonstrated by example that “the joy of great religious music and
the role of popular participation in holy liturgy, the solemn joy and
simplicity of the humble celebration of the faith, go hand in hand”.

“In the Vatican Council II
Constitution on the liturgy it is written very clearly: 'The treasure
of sacred music is to be preserved and fostered with great care'. On
the other hand, the text highlights, as a fundamental liturgical
category, the participatio actuosa of all the faithful in holy
action. But what remained peacefully together in the Constitution has
often subsequently, in the reception of the Council, been in a
relationship of dramatic tension. Significant parts of the liturgical
movement believed that there would be space for the great choral
works and even orchestral masses only in concert halls, not in the
liturgy, in which there would have been space only for the hymns and
common prayer of the faithful. On the other hand, there was dismay at
the cultural impoverishment of the Church that would necessarily have
resulted. How could the two aspects be reconciled? These were the
questions asked by many of the faithful, including simple people, not
only those with a theological education”.

“At this point, perhaps it is correct
to ask the underlying question: what is music? Where does it come
from and where does it lead? I think there are three 'places' from
which music arises. The first wellspring is the experience of love.
When human beings were seized by love, another dimension of being
opened up within them, a new greatness and breadth of reality,
driving them to express themselves in a new way. Poetry, hymn and
music in general were born of the opening up of this new dimension of
life. A second origin of music is the experience of sadness, of being
touched by death, by suffering and by the abysses of existence. In
this case too, in the opposite direction, there open up new
dimensions of life that do not find answers in discourse alone.
Finally, the third origin of music is the encounter with the divine,
which from the beginning is part of what defines the human being. …
It may be said that the quality of music depends on the purity and
the greatness of the encounter with the divine, with the experience
of love and pain. The purer and more authentic the experience, the
purer and greater will be the music that emerges and develops from
it”.

“Certainly, western music goes far
beyond the religious and ecclesial environment. However, it finds its
deepest source in the liturgy in the encounter with God. In Bach, for
whom the glory of God ultimately represents the aim of all music,
this is entirely evident. The great and pure response of western
music developed in the encounter with that God Who, in the liturgy,
made Himself present in us in Jesus Christ. That music, for me, is a
demonstration of the truth of Christianity. Where this form of
response develops, the encounter with the truth, with the true
Creator of the world, takes place. Therefore, the great religious
music is a reality of theological level and lasting meaning for the
faith of all Christianity, even though it is not at all necessary for
it to be performed always and everywhere. On the other hand, it is
also clear that it cannot disappear from the liturgy and its presence
can be an entirely special form of participation in holy celebration
and in the mystery of the faith”.

“If we think of the liturgy
celebrated by St. John Paul II in all continents, we see the full
breadth of the expressive possibilities of faith in the liturgical
event, and we also see how the great music of the western tradition
is not external to the liturgy, but instead originated and grew
within it and in this way continually contributes to its formation.
We do not know the future of our culture and of religious music. But
one thing is clear: where there takes place the encounter with the
living God Who in Christ comes towards us, there too develops the
response, whose beauty comes from the truth itself”, concluded
Benedict XVI.